Lebanese crowds pay tribute at Gemayel's funeral

BEIRUT, Nov 23: Tens of thousands of Lebanese choked downtown Beirut to pay tribute to assassinated Christian leader Pierre Gemayel today, turning his funeral into a show of defiance against Syria and its Hezbollah allies.

Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian leaders have accused Syria of killing Gemayel, scion of one of Lebanon's most prominent Maronite families. Damascus has condemned his murder.

Heaving crowds carrying Lebanese flags and those of Christian factions, including Gemayel's Phalange Party, filled Martyrs' Square in the heart of Beirut before the funeral in the St George Maronite Cathedral.

Gemayel's coffin was borne aloft into the cathedral, next to a giant mosque built by former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

Hariri's killing last year led to protests that forced Syrian troops to leave Lebanon and his tomb abuts Martyrs' Square.

The mood of the mourners was one of anger and resolve -- anger at Syria and resolve in their support of Lebanon's anti-Syrian majority coalition, witnesses said.

''Our suspicions are big that Syria is behind this (killing) to destroy national unity, to destroy us living together and to fuel sectarianism,'' Sunni mourner Ghada Hakim, 63, told Reuters.

Gemayel, 34, was shot dead on Tuesday in the sixth killing of an anti-Syrian figure in less than two years in Lebanon, a cockpit for regional conflicts and rivalries for decades.

Thousands of soldiers and police were deployed in the capital which was at a standstill. Shops, schools, banks and government offices were closed to let people join the mourning.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose country has been a strong opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, was the most prominent foreign dignitary to attend the funeral.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal faction is allied to Hezbollah, was the most senior pro-Syrian figure there.

Some mourners carried banners demanding that Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud resign.

''Bashar agent, get out of Baabda (presidential palace),'' one read, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Another said ''See you in court'' above an upside down portrait of Lahoud. ''Whatever they do to remove young men, there will always be more young men to raise the flag,'' said Marwan Haj, 25. ''Syria doesn't want us to be free and make our own decisions.'' The country was already embroiled in a political crisis over efforts by Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah to clip the wings of the ruling anti-Syrian majority coalition, which the Shi'ite Muslim group regards as Washington's puppet.

INTERNATIONAL COURT

Anti-Syrian leaders say Damascus had Gemayel killed to try to derail plans for an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of Hariri.

The early reports of a U.N. inquiry into the Hariri killing implicated Syrian security officials and their Lebanese counterparts. Syria denies involvement.

The UN Security Council approved today a Lebanese government request to add the Gemayel killing to the string of previous attacks the UN inquiry is investigating.

''Only the international tribunal protects us'' and ''Lebanon means life'' read banners held aloft by the crowds in Beirut.

Hariri's son Saad, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Christian Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea had called for a huge turnout for the funeral of the son of ex-President Amin Gemayel and nephew of Bashir Gemayel, killed in 1982 after he was elected president.

Gemayel's cortege had driven from his mountain home town of Bekfaya past thousands of people lining roads leading to Beirut.

Jumblatt said yesterday Gemayel's killing marked the resumption of political killings. ''It seems the Syrian regime will continue with the assassinations,'' he said.

Anti-Syrian leaders say the assassination was aimed at weakening a government opposed to Damascus's influence in Lebanon and which took power after Syrian troops withdrew.

The government, keen to ensure the international tribunal is established, would fall if it lost two more ministers.

The cabinet has been weakened by the resignation of six ministers from the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah.

They quit after all-party talks on a new government collapsed.

Hezbollah had pledged street protests aimed at toppling the government but Gemayel's killing has disrupted those plans.

''It can't stage a demonstration now. It would be widely read as a pro-Syrian demonstration as opposed to an anti-government demonstration,'' Hezbollah expert Amal Saad Ghorayeb said.

REUTERS